• @Atlas_
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    141 month ago

    A significant fraction of America is illiterate. 21% or 1/5. Yeah.

    • @[email protected]
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      151 month ago

      It’s even worse than that:

      21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2024. 54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level (20% are below 5th-grade level).

      So 1/5 can’t read at all, and over HALF can’t read better than an 11 year old.

      • OptionalOP
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        21 month ago

        Nooooooo! IT’s because the DeMoCrAts didn’t address the needs of the working pooooooor! nooooooooooo!

        • @UnderpantsWeevil
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          11 month ago

          I mean, you think this is happening exclusively in red states?

          DC is bright blue and they’ve got some of the worst schools in the country. And if you want to know why…

          Michelle Rhee’s Reign of Error

          Privatization, downsizing, teaching to the test… Twenty years of NCLB has taken its toll.

          Even then, there is something of a silver lining

          Exploring the relationship between children’s knowledge of text message abbreviations and school literacy outcomes

          The advent of modern text communications has created significant social incentives for improving literacy at younger ages.

          • OptionalOP
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            11 month ago

            If reading is the only driver to voting preference, then yes.

            Otherwise, no.

            • @UnderpantsWeevil
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              21 month ago

              If reading is the only driver to voting preference

              Reading is a powerful tool because writing/publishing has a very low barrier to entry.

              By contrast, audio and video tend to carry incrementally higher cost for production/distribution.

              But you do still need peer groups with good politics to send you in the right direction. You can’t expect good politics to emerge ex nihilio across an entire population.

      • @Valmond
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        21 month ago

        How does that work out, are there 50% of 11 yo in the USA?

        :-) Jk